Prometheus: Annihilation

Prologue

The explosives detonated simultaneously.  With a loud bang, the oversized front door blew inward, spraying glass and shards of wood and metal in violence that I had not seen since my days with SWAT.  We could hear, through our earpieces, the group of men in the back and on the roof doing the same thing.  We had thoroughly planned this incursion over the past twenty-four hours. 

Harry and I entered the front of the house silently.  Using thermal imaging, we knew exactly where the bad guys were and their terrified hostage.  With precision, my team of six well-trained operatives took out the first four bad guys.  One shot, one kill.  Everything was going per plan as Harry and I entered the back office, where the last two kidnappers and the young child that they were holding against his will were hunkered down. 

"Upstairs is clear," Billy Washington spoke into my ear, "we're heading down to you."  Billy was one of two former SWAT teammates that had eagerly agreed to help Harry and myself for this off-the-books mission.  He was upstairs with Ron Brighton; the former Boston College linebacker turned Army Ranger turned SWAT veteran.  Ron, Billy, and I had joined the Boston Police Department Special Weapons and Tactics squad within a year of each other.  Six years ago, I had been promoted to detective and been working homicide ever since.  The two men entering through the back of the house, John and Jeremy Lyons, were twins from Brighton who had joined the squad a year after I had left.  Like Billy and Ron, they were well-trained, extremely loyal and disciplined.  Jeremy ran all the reconnaissance equipment that we had used to survey the house and surrounding property.  Thanks to his technical knowledge, we knew what was waiting for us.  Proper planning made all the difference between life and death in operations such as this.

"Roger that," I said, "we are approaching the back room."

I felt a tap on my shoulder and glanced behind me.  John, like the rest of us, was dressed in black from head to toe.  Unlike everyone else, he was wearing a black bandana around his shaved bald head.  He held his M4 Carbine assault rifle with his left hand and gave me thumbs up with his right.  I nodded.  He and his twin brother had finished clearing the back area of the house.  Jeremy was staying in the back in case anyone tried to run out or enter from that direction of the large Tudor-style house.

"Goggles on," I said, pulling out a smoke canister.  I put my hand on the tab and nodded in Harry's direction.

Harry stood to the left of the closed door.  He held up three fingers with his gloved left hand.  Two fingers.  The five of us donned our goggles.  I pulled the tab from the smoke canister.  Harry grabbed his 9mm H&K assault rifle and with one smooth motion kicked the door open.  I threw the smoke grenade into the room.  We heard voices yelling.  Through our goggles, we could see the hostage strapped to a chair in the middle of the room, one figure standing on either side of him.  Before they could move, Harry and John each raised their weapons and with deadly accuracy took both men down.  With a rapid scan of the room, I ran in and grabbed the chair that the boy was strapped to and pulled him out of the smoke into the larger living area outside of the small back room.  His little face looked up at me, the fear that had been there just moments before was replaced with relief.

"Hey Chris," I said with a smile through the black-out makeup smeared across my face, "You have been so tough.  Your mom and dad asked us to bring you home."

I set the chair down and untied his arms and legs.  Apparently, he had been tied up in the chair throughout the forty-eight hours that he had been away from his family.  It took him a few minutes to be able to stand up on his own, and he smelled as if they had not even let him loose to use the bathroom.  How anyone could treat a seven-year-old like that was beyond me.
Once he had regained the strength to stand, he looked up at me with a shaky smile.  "Uncle Ace, I want to see my mom," he said.